The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou

by Andrew W. Hall

Overview

Many imagine the settlement of the American West as signaled by the dust of the wagon train or the whistle of a locomotive. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, though, the growth of Texas and points west centered on the seventy-mile water route between Galveston and Houston. This single vital link stood between the agricultural riches of the interior and the mercantile enterprises of the coast, with a round of operations that was as sophisticated and efficient as that of any large transport network today. At the same time, the packets on the overnight Houston-Galveston run earned a reputation as colorful as their Mississippi counterparts, complete with impromptu steamboat races, makeshift naval gunboats during the Civil War, professional gamblers and horrific accidents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614237495
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/30/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Andy Hall is a native of Galveston, and has spent most his life on the Texas coast. For the last 20 years Hall has served as a volunteer with the Texas Historical Commission in investigating shipwrecks, and in 2001 was part of the first group of state marine archaeological stewards appointed in the US.